Happy 2nd Birthday, Clare!

Leave it to Clare to get poison oak for her birthday.

It turns out, it is growing in our back yard. We aren't sure if she touched it directly, or possibly picked it up off of the dog. We first noticed it on Friday morning, and it has only looked worse every day since.

She's been sporting a winter mitten the past couple of days to keep her from messing with it and to prevent the oils from spreading once the blisters pop. Most people at Church this morning chalked it up to 2 year oldness, although one lady did ask if we were trying to break her of sucking her thumb. Thankfully, no, it is just poison oak. I thought. Not that poison oak is better, just easier to get rid of. :)

Before Clare woke up this morning, we snuck out her friends and decked them out in party hats. We thought it would be a nice surprise for her to find at the kitchen table when she came out, but unfortunately, she was more concerned with the fact that she couldn't find her friends when she woke up. Oops.

Clare's besties: Bernadette, Clarence the hippo, Camel, and Baby...Oh, and there is a little squirrel under the pile of hats.

We sang to her at breakfast and even lit a candle atop her giant muffin.

After breakfast, she finally sort of liked the party hats.

After Mass, we came home and got ready for a party with my husband's family. They all came (minus a few in-laws) which is pretty amazing. We figured out that we hadn't had that many of them at our house at one time since Clare's baptism. (His parents and 4 brothers and sisters live 4 hours away.) We had our cake and ate it, too. I made a caramel cake with caramel frosting - my favorite! Everyone liked it. Clare hardly touched her piece, but did some damage to the leftover cake.After the party, we went to the zoo. We only had an hour before closing, so we kind of had to rush, but we did let Clare walk most of the way instead of making her ride in the stroller. Another dream come true!

We had supper at Valentino's, and then came home and Jeremy built this:

All in all, I think she had a great day. We discovered a personality trait this weekend - she doesn't like to be the center of attention, but she loves to be the clown.